Cable reel



April 9, 1963 P. G. WERMAGER CABLE REEL 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 12, 1961 L n I 1 INVENTOR PALMER 6. WERMAG'ER :25 WWM ATTORNEQFS p 9, 3 I P. G. WERMAGER 3,084,602

CABLE REEL Filed July 12, 1961- 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR PALMER G. WERAGER ATTOR EYS April 9, 1963 P. G. WERMAGER CABLE REEL 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed July 12, 1961 INVEN rm? PALMER 6. WERMAGER 0 0; ATTORNE S $84,662 Patented Apr. 9, 1963 3,084,602 CABLE REEL Palmer G. Wermager, Minneapolis, Minn, assignor, by inesne assignments, to the United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy Filed July 12, 1961, Ser. No. 126,430 3 Ciaims. (Cl. 89-13) This invention relates generally to winding and reeling devices, and more particularly it pertains to a cable takeup reel arrangement for furnishing electrical connection to a movable article upon a tramway.

In a typical guided missile launching system, a tramway type loader is used in conjunction with a storage magazine for storing missile-booster combinations and a launcher for launching missile weapons, the loader being located between the magazine and the launcher. The loader components receive a missile-booster combination from the magazine and support it during wing and fin assembly and testing. When these procedures are finished, the completed missile weapon is delivered by the loader to the missile launcher for launching thereof.

Because time is of the essence, it is desirable to warm up the electrical components of the missile of the missile weapon while it is still suspended on the loader and during movement therealong. Motion along the loader is imparted to the missile-booster weapon through a loader chain and a load engaging loader pawl having a warmup contactor.

This warm-up contactor is the subject of a co-pending U.S. patent application entitled Warmup Contactor for Missile-Booster Type Weapon," Serial No. 106,421, filed April 27, 1961, by Carl Johnson.

This warmup contactor is associated with the cable reel of the present invention in a manner more particularly described hereinbelow.

It is an object of this invention to provide a cable reel for an electric connection to a loader tramway which centers the position of the cable onto a loader drive chain for all conditions of cable extension.

Another object of this invention is to provide a following mechanism for a cable drum which picks up the cable from a feed point and guides it smoothly onto the drum without overlapping.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a winding and unwinding mechanism for a cable reel which drives it in synchronism with the retraction or extension of a loader pawl.

Yet another object is to provide a reel device having a drum member which is axially movable in synchronization with the rotational movement of said drum so as to maintain the point of departure of a tension member from the drum at an axially fixed point. i

Still another object is to provide a shaft arrangement upon which bodies to be rotated may be mounted to rotate and translate axially at a uniform rate.

These and other objects and attendant advantages of this invention will become more readily apparent and understood from the following specification and accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a dimetric view of a warm-up cable reel assembly incorporating features of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic, partly in elevation and partly in cross section, showing the relation of the cable reel to the loader;

FIG. 3 is a dimetric view of the loader; and

FIG. 4 is a detail view of a loader chain showing the method of warm-up cable support.

Referring now to the details of the drawings, as shown in FIG. 1, the cable reel, designated generally by reference numeral consists of a right housing 12 and a left housing 14. These cup shaped housings 12 and 14 journal a cable drum 16 between them. Their inner flanges 18 are spaced apart and drilled for mounting to the sides of a loader as will be related.

The right housing 12 is tapered conically on its right end, and it has a slipring housing 20 bolted thereto at the tip of the cone. The left housing 14 is of cylindrical shape and it includes an extended gearbox 22 as an integral part of its casting.

In the gearbox 22, an input shaft 24, which is provided with an integral spiral bevel pinion 26-, is coupled to the response shaft of a cable drum drive, as shown by dotted lines in FIG. 2. The spiral bevel pinion 26 meshes with a spiral bevel gear 28 which is splined to the end of a driven shaft 36. The hollow shaft 30 is mounted horizontally and axially of the cable drum 16 and it extends from the gearbox 2-2 into the slipring housing 20'.

The driven shaft 30 rotates in three spaced ball hearing assemblies 32. The left bearing assembly 32 is supported by the gear box housing 22, while the middle and right assemblies 32 are supported within a hollow lead screw 34. The driven shaft 30 is splined for half its length from the gearbox 22 to the end of the lead screw 34.

The lead screw 34- is acme-threaded on its outside surface, and it is fastened by capscrews 36 to a housing cover 38. The lead screw 34 extends inwardly for almost half the length of the driven shaft 34), and its inner end is supported thereupon by the previously mentioned middle ball bearing assembly 32.

The slipring housing 20 contains a slipring assembly 40 of spaced insulated conducting discs 42 which are fastened to the end of the driven shaft 30. Rotary electric contact is made to these discs 42 by means of stationary brush fingers 44 which are wired to a terminal board 46.

The cable drum 16 is formed of a hollow cylinder, with a helically shaped groove 48 being positioned around its circumference onto which a multi-conductor warm-up cable 50 winds. The drum 16 rotates on two integrally mounted supports 52 and 54. The first support 52 is in the form of a large cone, the base of which is bolted and pinned to the flanged edge of the drum 16. The cone tip of the support 52' is internally threaded to mate with the threaded lead screw 34.

The second wheel-like support 54- is bolted to the edges of a reinforced annular disc 56 at approximately the axial midpoint of the drum 16. The hub portion of the support 54 is splined to match the splined driven shaft 30-.

As the shaft 36 is driven, the splined second support 54 rotates the cable drum 16. As the first support 52 rotates with the drum 16, it is caused to travel along the lead screw 34 and draw the drum 16 with it. The second sup port 54 slides along the splined surface of the driven shaft 36.

Because the pitch of the cable groove 48 matches the pitch of the lead screw 34, the point of departure of the cable 50 from the cable drum 16 is always maintained at a fixed position with respect to the cable reel assembly 10 as the cable Stlwinds on or off the drum 16. In winding, the cable 50 feeds smoothly into the groove 48 without overlapping. The cable 56 should be fabricated with a center steel wire to prevent it from stretching.

After leaving the drum 16, the cable 56 passes over a spring-tensioned sheave 58 and around an idler 66 as shown in FIG. 2. One end of the cable 50 is electrically connected to the previously mentioned slipring of the slipring assembly 40 and the other end is wired to a warmup contactor 62 of a traveling loader pawl 64. For details of this warm-up contactor 62, the aforementioned co-pending patent application should be referred to.

When a missile-booster combination 66 is raised to engage this pawl 64, electrical circuitry is established between the warm-up contactor 62 and a warm-up pad 68 on the missile of the missile-booster combination 66.

As best shown in FIG. 3, the loader '73 to which the cable reel 16) is attached consists of an extended rail 72. The pawl 64- rides along this rail 72 and it is propelled by the extension of a chain 74'which passes over a drive sprocket 76. The input shaft 24 of the cable reel 10 is geared to the drive sprocket 76 and to the driven shaft 38 in such a ratio as to assure that the peripheral speed of the drum 16 and the linear speed of the chain '74- are the same. I

As the loader pawl 64 and the warm-up contactor 62. move along the rail 72 with the missile-booster combination 66, the cable 5b is payed out from the drum 16, as best shown in FIG. 2. The idler 66 is located directly above the path of the chain 74, and it deposits the cable 50 upon the spacers 78 and between the specially widened side links 80 of the chain *74, as shown best in FIG. 4. Accordingly, the cable 59 and the chain 74 move in unison whether the pawl 6 is being extended or retracted and electrical circuitry is at all times complete from the previously mentioned terminal board to the contact pad 68 of the missile-booster combination 66.

Obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. It is, therefore, to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

What is claimed is:

1. In a missile launching system of the type having a tramway loader on which missiles are supported for movement thereon by means of a driving chain and powered sprocket during which movement electrical components of said missile are electrically connected by cable to a power source for component warmup, the improvement therein comprising a reeling device for storing said cable, said reelingdevice including a drum member having a pair of axially'spaced' radially and inwardly extending guide members, a hollow driven shaft splined along at least one-half its length, a hollow helically threaded lead screw concentrically surrounding the remaining portion of said driven shaft, the inner end of one of said guide members engaging said lead screw, the innor end of the other of said guide members slidably engaging the splined portion of said driven shaft, and shafting and gearing interconnecting said powered sprocket and said driven shaft in such a ratio as will maintain the peripheral speed of said' drum and the linear speed of said chain equal whereby a cable may be payed out from the drum at the same speed at which the chain is driven and the drum is caused to move axially as the latter is rotatably thereby permitting electrical connection to said missile to be maintained at any position along said tramway.

2. The device according to claim 1 wherein said drum has helical grooves along its surface of a pitch identical to the threading along said lead screw whereby the drum is caused to move axially precisely the width of one groove for each revolution of said drum and the point of departure of a cable stored along said drum grooves is maintained at an axially fixed point with respect to said driven shaft, which point lies within the vertical plane containing said chain thereby permitting said cable to move with said chain.

3. The device according to claim 1 additionally comprising a slip-ring assembly having rotatable and nonrotatable members, the non-rotatable member being mounted at the outer extremity of said lead screw and connected to said power source, and the rotatable member being mounted at the mating end or" said driven shaft and connected to said cable whereby said cable is in continuous electrical contact with said power source.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 652,893 Herdman July 3, 1900 1,110,248 Atwood Sept. 8, 1914- 1,l',857 Coseo Nov. 16, 1915 1,811,623 Ferguson lune 23, 1931 2,225,185 Sloane Dec. 17, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS 488,864 Great Britain July 14, 1938 

1. IN A MISSILE LAUNCHING SYSTEM OF THE TYPE HAVING A TRAMWAY LOADER ON WHICH MISSILES ARE SUPPORTED FOR MOVEMENT THEREON BY MEANS OF A DRIVING CHAIN AND POWERED SPROCKET DURING WHICH MOVEMENT ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS OF SAID MISSILE ARE ELECTRICALLY CONNECTED BY CABLE TO A POWER SOURCE FOR COMPONENT WARMUP, THE IMPROVEMENT THEREIN COMPRISING A REELING DEVICE FOR STORING SAID CABLE, SAID REELING DEVICE INCLUDING A DRUM MEMBER HAVING A PAIR OF AXIALLY SPACED RADIALLY AND INWARDLY EXTENDING GUIDE MEMBERS, A HOLLOW DRIVEN SHAFT SPLINED ALONG AT LEAST ONE-HALF ITS LENGTH, A HOLLOW HELICALLY THREADED LEAD SCREW CONCENTRICALLY SURROUNDING THE REMAINING PORTION OF SAID DRIVEN SHAFT, THE INNER END OF ONE OF SAID GUIDE MEMBERS ENGAGING SAID LEAD SCREW, THE INNER END OF THE OTHER OF SAID GUIDE MEMBERS SLIDABLY ENGAGING THE SPLINED PORTION OF SAID DRIVEN SHAFT, AND SHAFTING AND GEARING INTERCONNECTING SAID POWERED SPROCKET AND SAID DRIVEN SHAFT IN SUCH A RATIO AS WILL MAINTAIN THE PERIPHERAL SPEED OF SAID DRUM AND THE LINEAR SPEED OF SAID CHAIN EQUAL WHEREBY A CABLE MAY BE PAYED OUT FROM THE DRUM AT THE SAME SPEED AT WHICH THE CHAIN IS DRIVEN AND THE DRUM IS CAUSED TO MOVE AXIALLY AS THE LATTER IS ROTATABLY THEREBY PERMITTING ELECTRICAL CONNECTION TO SAID MISSILE TO BE MAINTAINED AT ANY POSITION ALONG SAID TRAMWAY. 